READING PLAN
Building Faith: A 7-Day Book of Mormon Plan
Seven days tracing how faith begins, grows, is tested, and becomes knowledge — from Nephi's first decision to Ether's hall of faith. Each day builds on the one before it.
The Book of Mormon doesn't just tell you to have faith. It shows you how faith actually works.
Most treatments of faith in scripture are doctrinal — they tell you what faith is or what it produces. The Book of Mormon does something more useful: it shows you people at various stages of the faith journey and lets you watch what they do. Nephi decides before he knows how. Alma gives people who have lost everything a way to begin with just a desire. The brother of Jared asks a specific question and gets a specific answer. Moroni, alone at the end of his civilization, writes the most comprehensive definition of faith in the record.
This seven-day plan moves through those passages in a deliberate sequence — each day builds on the previous one, tracing the arc from first decision to mature trust. By day seven, you will have a working map of how faith actually functions, not just what it is supposed to be.
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Act Before You Know — Nephi's First Principle
Read
1 Nephi 3:1-21 (Nephi's response to Lehi's command to retrieve the brass plates — including three failed attempts) and 1 Nephi 4:1-18 (Nephi's approach to Jerusalem alone, "led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand").
What to Look For
The famous verse 3:7 is Nephi's resolve before he knows how it will work out. Then watch what actually happens — it doesn't work. They try twice and fail. Laman and Lemuel give up. But Nephi goes back a fourth time, "led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do." Faith is not confidence that a plan will succeed. It is willingness to move before the path is clear.
Key Verse
"I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."
1 Nephi 3:7
Reflect
Nephi's resolve in 3:7 is famous. But the less-quoted sequel — failing twice, watching Laman give up, going back alone — is where the faith actually lives. Where in your life are you waiting to move until you have a clear path? What would it look like to take one step "not knowing beforehand"?
The principle here is not blind obedience — Nephi uses intelligence throughout chapters 3 and 4. But he moves before certainty arrives. He tries, fails, adjusts, and tries again. Faith is not a feeling you wait for. It is a direction you start walking. See the full verse study at 1 Nephi 3:7 and the character study at Nephi.
Even If You Only Desire — Alma's Entry Point
Read
Alma 32:1-27 (the context — who Alma is talking to, and the first 27 verses of the seed metaphor).
What to Look For
Before you read the seed metaphor, understand who Alma is teaching: the Zoramites who have been cast out of their synagogues for being poor. They have lost their religious community, their social standing, and probably their sense of belonging with God. Watch how Alma frames the lowest possible entry point for faith — not belief, not certainty, not even full desire, but "if ye can no more than desire to believe." That framing is deliberate and compassionate.
Key Verse
"But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you."
Alma 32:27
Reflect
Alma calls faith "an experiment." What makes an experiment different from a commitment? How does framing your faith as an experiment rather than a conclusion change how you approach doubt, questions, or seasons when it doesn't seem to be working?
The Zoramites had been told they weren't welcome in the official religious space. Alma doesn't argue with their theology or defend the institution. He meets them in the field with a framework so accessible that a person with nothing left — no confidence, no certainty, no community — can still begin. If you have ever felt too far gone to start, Alma 32:27 is written specifically for that feeling. See the verse study at Alma 32:21.
The Seed Grows — What Faith Feels Like When It's Working
Read
Alma 32:28-43 (the growth of the seed — what happens when you nurture faith, and what happens when you neglect it).
What to Look For
Alma gives you specific, testable signs that the seed (faith) is working: "it beginneth to enlarge my soul, yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me." He also gives you a warning about premature certainty — just because the seed sprouts doesn't mean it's fully grown. Watch for the tension between early growth and mature faith.
Key Verse
"Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts."
Alma 32:28
Reflect
Alma says a sign the seed is good is that it "enlarges the soul." Can you identify a time when engaging with scripture, prayer, or service made your capacity for understanding, compassion, or patience grow? What was the specific practice that produced that growth?
The most underappreciated part of Alma's metaphor is the warning in verses 38-39: a neglected seed dies not because it was bad, but because it wasn't nurtured. Faith is not self-sustaining. It requires conditions. This is not a discouraging teaching — it is a practical one. If faith has dried up in your life, Alma's question isn't "did you believe wrong?" It's "what conditions have you been providing?"
Faith Tested — When God Seems Silent
Read
Alma 14:1-29 (Alma and Amulek imprisoned, watching believers burned, constrained by the Spirit from acting) and Mosiah 24:8-25 (the people of Alma under Amulon — their burdens made light).
What to Look For
In Alma 14, God does not prevent the burning of the believers. Amulek asks Alma why they don't act, and Alma's answer is stark: "The Spirit constraineth me." Watch how Alma holds this — he doesn't explain it theologically in the moment; he sits with it. Then in Mosiah 24, watch the specific form of God's answer to a suffering people: not deliverance, but the burden made "light" while it is still being carried.
Key Verse
"And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions."
Mosiah 24:14
Reflect
God's answer to the people of Alma is not "I will remove the burden." It is "I will be with you while you carry it." Have you experienced a season where the difficulty was not removed but something made it possible to bear? What made the difference — and was that the answer to prayer you were asking for?
This is the hardest day in the plan because it doesn't offer a clean resolution. Alma 14 ends with Alma and Amulek in prison and the believers dead. The prison collapses later — but not before the suffering is real. The Book of Mormon doesn't promise that faith prevents pain. It promises that God visits His people in their afflictions — not after them, not instead of them, but in the middle of them. That is either a great comfort or an unsatisfying answer, depending on where you are.
Specific Faith — The Brother of Jared's Experiment
Read
Ether 3:1-20 (the brother of Jared and the sixteen stones — the most direct encounter with the pre-mortal Christ in scripture).
What to Look For
The brother of Jared doesn't ask God to make light. He asks a specific, problem-solving question: "Here are sixteen stones. Touch them." He brings a solution and a request — and gets more than he asked for. Watch what happens when his specific faith leads to a specific encounter. Also notice that Christ's explanation for appearing is striking: "Never have I showed myself unto man whom I have created... because of thy faith thou hast seen that I shall take upon me flesh and blood."
Key Verse
"And because of the knowledge of this man he could not be kept from beholding within the veil; and he saw the finger of Jesus, and he saw that it was as the finger of a man, like unto flesh and blood; and the brother of Jared fell down before the Lord, for he was struck with fear."
Ether 3:6
Reflect
The brother of Jared's faith was specific — he brought stones and a specific request. In contrast to vague faith ("God, help things be better"), specific faith looks like "God, here is a particular problem; here is what I think the answer might be; what do you think?" Where in your life could you practice more specific faith rather than general hoping?
Christ says the brother of Jared's encounter happened because of his faith — "never have I showed myself unto man... because of thy faith thou hast seen." This is the most direct statement in the Book of Mormon that faith is the mechanism that opens the veil. Not worthiness alone, not rank, not perfect obedience — faith. The brother of Jared was not perfect. He had just been chastened for forgetting to pray for four years. But when he brought his specific, honest, active faith to God, the veil gave way. See the character study at The Brother of Jared.
Weakness Made Strength — When Faith Meets Inadequacy
Read
Ether 12:1-41 (Moroni's meditation on faith — the hall of faith, the weakness passage, and the closing prayer).
What to Look For
Ether 12 is the most concentrated chapter on faith in the Book of Mormon. Moroni opens with the definition (verse 6: "faith is things hoped for and not seen"), then walks through a hall of faith — specific people and what their faith produced. Then he interrupts himself with his own anxiety about his writing. Watch how Christ's response to Moroni's weakness (verses 26-27) reframes what weakness is actually for.
Key Verse
"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me."
Ether 12:27
Reflect
Ether 12:6 says that "after the trial of your faith" comes the witness. Not before — after. Thinking about the faith journey you've traced over the past six days, where are you currently in that sequence? In the trial, or beginning to see the witness?
Notice the logical structure of verse 27: weakness is given, humility is the response, grace is the result, strength is the outcome. The weakness is not the enemy of faith — it is the on-ramp. Every person in Moroni's hall of faith in chapter 12 was inadequate to the task before them. None of them succeeded by being sufficient. They succeeded by being humble enough to let grace fill the gap. See the verse study at Ether 12:27.
The Promise — Where Faith Arrives
Read
Moroni 10:1-7 (Moroni's promise and what conditions it requires) and Alma 5:45-46 (Alma's testimony of how he came to know for himself).
What to Look For
Read Moroni 10:4-5 in its full context. Before the promise, Moroni says to "remember how merciful the Lord hath been." The witness comes after remembrance. Then in Alma 5, watch how Alma describes the actual process by which he came to know — it was not a single moment but a sustained practice of prayer, fasting, and study. Notice that he uses the word "know" with striking confidence. That confidence came through the process.
Key Verse
"And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost."
Moroni 10:4
Reflect
You have spent seven days tracing the arc of faith: first decision (Nephi), lowest entry point (Alma 32), growth and tending (Alma 32-33), testing (Alma 14), specificity (Ether 3), weakness and grace (Ether 12), and arrival (Moroni 10). Where has your own faith been in this arc? Where do you want it to go?
Moroni 10:4 is often read as an intellectual test — ask and find out if the book is true. But read in sequence with everything this plan has covered, it is the natural landing point of a faith journey that began with a particle of desire and was tended carefully through trials, specific experiments, and honest encounters with weakness. The promise is not a shortcut. It is the destination that the whole journey was pointing toward. See the verse study at Moroni 10:4-5.
Continue your study.
- Follow Christ Through the Book of Mormon — The 14-day plan that traces Christ's presence across the entire record
- Scripture for Hard Times — If building faith has raised hard questions, this plan addresses suffering and hope directly
- Be Like Jesus — How the faith you've traced in this plan connects to daily discipleship
- All Reading Plans — Browse all six thematic study plans